Wildlife Diary Tues 7th August

Our young Osprey Blue44 is getting more and more independent and spending less time of the nest now, and more time on the fringes of theLochwatching his father fishing and trying his own hand at this essential skill.

The male is still providing food to his young son: yesterday no fewer than four fish (though one may have been recycled twice we think) and today at least two so far. The male will gradually start to reduce the amount it brings to the chick to encourage it to start fishing for itself, but will keep succumbing to the incessant calls for food from his offspring until he leaves altogether on migration. Then the chick really will be on its own and will have to not only provide for itself, but get fit and fat enough for the arduous migration ahead- which it will face alone.

Many people have been asking about our female osprey- she still hasn’t been seen around the loch and we are now fairly sure she has begun her southwards trek. People have been asking why she leaves so early and why after being such a ‘good’ parent she ‘abandons’ her chick: in reality, her job is done and nature dictates that the chick must become independent quickly to survive.

Others have been asking about why the ospreys choose to migrate separately and don’t travel south together as a family group or in a flock: the truth is, we don’t know, but this is normal for almost all raptors and many smaller birds as well. Migration is still a very mysterious branch of bird behaviour and we are learning more every year- helpfully this year Blue 44 will teach us even more.

The next batch of satellite tracking data will be through on our webpage map tomorrow.

No further sign of our Beaver visitor over the last couple of days but we are still on the lookout!

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